The impact of school quality on earnings and educational returns—evidence from a low-income country

Abstract

particularly two anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions.The Institute of Social Studies is Europe's longest-established centre of higher education and research in development studies. Post-graduate teaching programmes range from six-week diploma courses to the PhD programme. Research at ISS is fundamental in the sense of laying a scientific basis for the formulation of appropriate development policies. The academic work of ISS is disseminated in the form of books, journal articles, teaching texts, monographs and working papers. The Working Paper series provides a forum for work in progress which seeks to elicit conu11ents and generate discussion. The series includes the research of staff, PhD participants and visiting fellows, and outstanding research papers by graduate students. ABSTRACTThe expansion of education has been widely adopted as a key element in the development strategies of low-income countries. While there is substantial evidence on the benefits of greater educational attainment for subsequent labor market earnings, empirical evidence on the role played by school quality is scarce. This paper combines household survey data with unique data on school quality, from Honduras, to study the importance of school quality as a detem1inant of earnings. Our objective measures of school quaiity capture teacher training, school infrastrncture and school crowding. The results display strong positive effects of school quality on earnings and on educational returns. These effects p~rsist across a variety of model specifications.

The achievement of indigenous students in Guatemalan primary schools

“…For limited evidence on the overall returns to measures of school quality in Honduras, see Bedi and Edwards (2002). A US literature suggests that black--white test score differences may explain a large proportion of the black-white earnings gap, and that convergence in school quality is partly responsible for reductions in earnings inequality (Card and Krueger, 1992;Neal and Johnson, 1996).…”

Quality of Higher Education and the Labor Market in Developing Countries: Evidence from an Education Reform in Senegal

“…However, school quality is slowly emerging as an important issue in developing countries. Recent evidence suggests that quality of education is strongly associated with income and economic growth (see, for example Mingat, 1998;Bloom et al, 2006;Hanushek and Woessmann, 2008;Schoellman, 2012;Hanushek, 2013;Kaarsen, 2014;Manuelli and Seshadri, 2014), as well as with higher individual returns to education (e.g., Behrman and Birdsall, 1983;Moll, 1992;Bedi and Edwards, 2002;Zhong, 2011). Moreover, there seems to be a direct link between school quality and attainment.…”

Does attendance to a four-year academic college versus vocational college affect future wages?

“…Graduates of vocational high schools were also eligible to take the college entrance examination. However, they normally chose to enter the job market or 1 While some papers find a significant positive school effect (Rizzuto and Wachtel 1980;Card and Krueger 1992a, b;Psacharopoulos and Velez 1993;and Bedi and Edwards 2002), others fail to show evidence of a school quality effect (Betts 1995;Heckman et al 1996;Grogger 1996a, b). 2 Evidence on returns to vocational education in developing countries is limited to the effect of upper secondary programs (grades 10-12) on earnings, and the findings are inconclusive (Bellew and Moock 1990;Moenjak and Worswick 2003;Moock et al 2003;Neuman and Ziderman 2003;Bishop and Mane 2004).…”